As part of the Monterey Car Week (11 – 17 August), Bugatti is celebrating the conclusion of its “Les Légendes de Bugatti” edition (Bugatti Legends). One year ago, Bugatti launched the exclusive model series during the Monterey Car Week at the well-known and attended automotive events “The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering” and “Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance” with the first
Legend. This year, the crowning conclusion will be held on August 15 at the same location with the world première of the company’s sixth Legend. It honors Ettore Bugatti, founder and patron of the brand, and is based on the historical model Type 41
Royale. As with the five previous Legends, only three of the final Legends model will be produced. It costs €2.35 million net. Bugatti is presenting all six Bugatti Legends together for the first and only time.
“Ettore Bugatti is our ‘patron’. His demand that an automobile be a perfect harmony of technology and aesthetics still applies to us today,” said Wolfgang Dürheimer, President of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. “Ettore Bugatti always strived for the creation of a total work of art. His ideas and vehicles set the foundation stone for an automobile brand that was lauded then and now as the most valuable in the world. Ettore Bugatti himself is a legend. It was clear from the start that we should dedicate the final Legends model to him personally.”
Ettore Bugatti is one of the most important figures of the automotive world in the 20th century. He knew how to combine his family’s rich artistic heritage with his technological ideas and succeeded in creating the foundation for a design language that shaped the brand for years to come and made it unmistakable. The brand’s values of “Art, Forme, Technique” define this unique approach. Under his leadership, vehicles were produced that were ahead of their times both technically and stylistically, and are today highly valued collectors’ items. Two such vehicles are the Type 57 SC Atlantic and the unforgettable Type 41 Royale that Ettore Bugatti built as the most powerful and luxurious car of its time. It also serves as the historical basis for this Bugatti Legend. The lightweight construction designs of the 1920s, such as the Type 13 “Brescia” or the Type 35 – which was one of the most successful racing cars in motor sport history with 2,000 victories and podium finishes – are further notable representatives of the brand.
The “Ettore Bugatti” Legend is based on the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse1, as are all the other Legends. The super sports car is powered by a 1,200 PS, 8-litre W16 engine that transmits an unequalled 1,500 Nm at 3,000 to 5,000 rpm to the tarmac and rockets it from zero to 100 km/h in 2.6 seconds. With a maximum speed of 408.84 km/h (254 MPH) with the roof down, the Vitesse is the world’s fastest production roadster ever built.
“The legend’s design is dedicated to Ettore Bugatti’s passion for the unusual in automobile construction. One of his masterpieces – the Type 41 Royale – never fails to impress and inspire with its mere presence,” explains Achim Anscheidt, Chief Designer at Bugatti. “Ettore liked to describe his creations as ‘Pur Sang’, as thoroughbreds. In dedicating this Bugatti Legend to him, we are staying true to his philosophy of aesthetically functional beauty for the automobile by using pure and natural materials such as polished aluminium and the finest cordovan leather.”
The design of the carbon body of the Legends model “Ettore Bugatti” is based on a 1932 Type 41 Royale with the chassis number 41111 and sports a “yin-yang” color split. The front part is made of hand-polished aluminium and finished with a clear coating. Bugatti is the only manufacturer to use clear-coated aluminium on a production vehicle. For the first time, this material is used for the entire front and side panels including the bonnet, the mirror bases and housings, the exterior door handles and the corners of the bumpers, the wings, the doors and the regions just behind them, the so-called “medallions” (in French). The vehicle’s rear, sill panels and A-pillar trims are finished with dark-blue exposed carbon. Based on one of the most famous wheel rim designs in automotive history, the polished, diamond-cut wheel rims were specially developed for this vehicle and color-coordinated with a dark-blue finish. The eight-spoke wheel was created by Ettore Bugatti who was looking for a light wheel for his racing cars, like the famous Type 35. Ettore Bugatti thus made a decisive contribution to the development of the aluminium wheel in automobile manufacture. The new wheel rim design on the Vitesse Legend therefore carries the name “Ettore Bugatti.”
The distinctive Bugatti horseshoe and the EB logo at the rear shine out in platinum and underscore the gleaming exterior appearance of this Bugatti Legend. The signature of the company’s founder Ettore Bugatti is engraved into the tank and oil cap and painted in silver.
Bugatti is using two types of leather for the first time in the “Ettore Bugatti” Legend. Traditional calf’s leather – here in a natural brown (Brun Cavalier) – is used throughout the vehicle interior. Those parts that are typically touched by hand including the steering wheel rim, gear lever, door handles, centre console armrest and door handle recesses, the switches in the door trims and in the roof module are all jacketed in an exclusive, natural cordovan leather. Bugatti is using this skilfully created leather – the tanning process alone takes around six months – for the first time. It is typically used for high-quality shoes and is particularly durable and sure to the touch. The exterior’s blue exposed carbon is present again in the vehicle interior, such as in the door trims and cover of the rear centre box, perfectly complemented by the seats’ dark-blue seams. The eye-catching feature of the interior is the platinum-coated dancing elephant, that is inset in the cover of the rear centre box and reminiscent of the hood ornament of the Type 41 Royale. The figure was originally sculpted by Ettore’s brother, Rembrandt.
